


Jesse's Ghoul 3: Ups and Downs

by fullamoxie



Category: Breaking Bad
Genre: Down (Breaking Bad Episode), Gen, Ghosts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23531134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullamoxie/pseuds/fullamoxie
Summary: Turning back the clock from the last story, we see a younger Jesse Pinkman as he was during the series, and he sees two ghosts. That's right, TWO ghosts!
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	Jesse's Ghoul 3: Ups and Downs

For Jesse Pinkman, it had been a long, horrible day.

He’d had a lot of long, horrible days recently, ever since partnering with that old man, but this one had been one of the worst. It became obvious as soon as he woke up that it was going to be a bad day; his mom woke him up and told him that he no longer owned his house. She was already in the process of repo-ing everything: he barely had time to make a phone call before they took the landline!

With a motorcycle and a small crate of what meager belongings his mother had left him, Jesse searched around for a friend to take him in while he searched out new housing. He thought he’d found it with an old high school buddy named Paul, but apparently, Paul’s wife didn’t like the cut of his jib, and they made up some bullshit excuse about “in-laws visiting.”

Nobody else would take him, and after he begged another friend to take him in at a local payphone, his motorcycle (and its contents) were stolen. Jesse, desperate and exhausted, had nothing, and nowhere else to go. The only thing in the world that was still  _ somewhat _ his was an RV locked up by his friend Badger’s cousin (for safekeeping). So, he headed to the repair yard.

Jesse stood outside, wondering where best to scale the tall fence, when he saw  _ it _ again. His breath caught in his throat, and he froze, trying not to draw its attention. Jesse’s palms grew sweaty as he crouched down behind a porta-potty, watching the lone figure in the yard.

It was something he’d seen before, always in the distance, but always distinctly recognizable. He’d been seeing it nearly every week since going into business with Walter. At first, he figured it was just a hallucination brought on by his drug use, but he’d see it when he was sober, too. A few weeks back, a man named Tuco had kidnapped him and his partner, and as he waited in front of Walter’s house, gun to his back, he saw it stumbling around down the street, just a silhouette of a thing, before disappearing into the night air. No, something deep down told Jesse that this  _ had _ to be something else, and just thinking about that made the hair on his neck stand on end. The figure haunted him, but he didn’t know what to do about it.

Presently, the figure stood, half upright, shambling around in the repair yard. It was below a light, and light glanced off of the chains around its legs and wrists. It wore dirty rags that barely passed as clothing, and its hair was long and greasy, long enough to cover its eyes. It sported a beard, as well-- dirty, matted, and unkempt. The almost inhuman  _ thing  _ stood there, hunched, almost as if in pain. It took a step forward. Jesse heard its chains rattle from there, at least a hundred feet away. He heard it groan, and something about its voice was familiar. 

_ Why the fuck is it groaning _ ? Jesse thought, eyes widening. The thing took another step.  _ It’s never even made a sound before, why now? _

As quickly as it had appeared, the specter vanished. Jesse tried to shake it off: even though seeing that thing made his anxiety rise like nothing else (except maybe  _ any  _ of Walter’s plans), the night air was cold on him, and he didn’t want to stay outside any longer than he had to. So, as quietly as he could, he scampered up the chain link fence, and came down the other side on a porta potty.

For a second, he stood, trying hard to keep his balance. In the next second, the porta-potty’s ceiling shattered, sending him directly into the bowl. Luckily for him, it had been clean, but he still found most of his body covered in the porta-potty’s chemicals.

Swearing, crying, and groaning in pain, Jesse left the porta-potty and stumbled around, looking for his RV. It wasn’t far, and once he was inside, he examined his empire of nothing. There were two respirators on the table. Jesse, sick of the chemically stench he was covered in, overwhelmed by his shitty day, and exhausted to no-end from the painful fall, pulled on one of them and fell to the ground.

Jesse laid there, crying. He breathed into the respirator, breaths quick and shallow from pain and exhaustion. In just a single day, he’d lost everything but this RV, and this mask, and his clothes, now stained blue with disgusting porta-potty chemicals. He felt worse than he’d ever felt, aside from the few times he’d had a gun to his head.

Jesse shivered. His thoughts drifted toward what he’d seen. That figure, the shambling thing that had haunted him for the past few weeks. Why was he only now hearing it speak, or able to make out its features? Before, on the night that Tuco had taken him, he saw the thing, but then it had only been a silhouette. If it kept reappearing, what would he see next? Would it be closer? Is it closing in on him, trying to kill him? And why was it haunting  _ him _ ?

_ Maybe I’m just going crazy _ , he thought. Finally, too much meth had taken its toll, and his body was beginning to break down. Maybe losing everything was the final push he needed to lose what was left of his mind. Those thoughts, grim as they were, provided him some comfort: they meant that the thing was just in his imagination, at least, and not a real thing that meant him harm.

Then, he heard something moving. It was in the RV with him, and it took a seat at one of the chairs. Jesse froze, and the fear he felt upon seeing the chained, dirty thing returned. Did thinking about it too much summon it, like some sort of conjured demon? Fear began to overwhelm him, so he tried to calm down and think of a plan.

_ It can’t see my face _ , he thought,  _ so maybe it thinks I’m sleeping. Maybe I’ve got the jump on it _ . Then, he remembered he had no weapons, and discarded the thought.  _ At least with Tuco I had a rock _ . His other option: escape. Jesse tried to remember how far exactly he was from the door, and if he had enough time to run.

The newcomer put their hand on Jesse’s shoulder, and he flinched. He opened his eyes, finally, and couldn’t believe what they saw. Seated above him, looking just as she’d been years ago, before her cancer and all her operations, was his Aunt Ginny. She was smiling down at him, sadness in her eyes, but some bittersweet joy in her grin.

Jesse felt a wave of relief wash over him. He didn’t know how, but there she was, his sweet and supportive and dead Aunt Ginny! The tears returned, but this time of joy, and of comfort. As Jesse moved to get up and hug her, she held up a finger, as if to warn him not to move. Jesse froze, and Ginny looked almost heartbroken. 

Aunt Ginny whispered something to him, squeezing his shoulder gently, but with one of the mask’s straps covering his ears, Jesse couldn’t hear very well. He took off the mask in time to catch the tail end of it.

“. . . and you’ll be alright,” she finished, her voice soft but a little gruff, just as he’d remembered it. She smiled at him again, let go of his shoulder, and dissolved into the air like cool mist in the warm sun. Jesse fell back over and just laid there, soaked with blue chemicals. Their unhealthy stench was overpowering, and he pulled the mask back on.

_ Was it really her, _ he asked his exhausted mind,  _ or is this stuff givin’ me crazy dreams? _ As he laid on his back, questioning whether or not he’d seen his aunt, he drifted off into a calm, but dreamless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to abysque for helping brainstorm and edit and workshop this story and extra special thanks to you, the reader. u make my work worth doing and i hope youre doing good


End file.
